Scooters in Canada
Scooters and the Canadian market will be changing in the next couple of years. I heard rumoured that the Transport Canada guidlines for scooter importation is going to be revamped and therefore lots of the stupid regulations for scooters will be dropped. Like rear floor brakes, lights etc. It is too bad that alot of the neat and innovative 2 wheeled vehicles available in Europe are not available here in North America. Its probably due to attitudes and our open wide roads. Bigger and wider open spaces here as opposed to the older narrow avenues found in the typical European city, make a small scooter very practical there.
However, with the gas prices going they way they are maybe we'll see attitude changes. In the big smoke (Toronto), Vespa is now represented in Canada and is importing their 125 and 150 cc all metal body scooters. These are the only two models as far as their website indicates (find them by Google). I would love to see the X9, X8, their 200 automatic 4 stroke with ABS here. None of the other Italian makers such as you mention are here yet. Its probably that our market isn't big enough to justify the huge investment for dealership representation. You have to remember, those that are building them are businessmen and there have been many times even with the big 4 (Japanese), money was lost. hang on to your hats because I predict the mega scooter market is just in it's infancy.